Five
by zantha19
Summary: They had known each other for more than five years, but it had been over the last five years that they had really got to know each other, and became very important to each other. If they were really honest with themselves than, they were the most important people in each other's lives. Their precious person.


They had known each other for more than five years, but it had been over the last five years that they had really got to know each other, and became very important to each other. If they were really honest with themselves than, they were the most important people in each other's lives. Their precious person.

Naruto had first noticed Sakura when he started at the academy. He was starting to realise that if he wanted his life to get better, to have people acknowledge him he would have to do something about it himself, something big. The hokage was the most respected person in the village that was what he would become to achieve his dream. Sakura wasn't part of his plan, she had her own mind and he never wanted to control her. She in a way was a test to see how far he had come. If she, one of Sasuke biggest fans acknowledged him, then he really had achieved his dream of being noticed.

He was an idiot, very loud and never seemed to run out of energy. Sakura found him annoying, but there were times when she felt sympathy for him. She would see him on his own, he wasn't crying, but there was a look in his eyes that said more than any words could. There were times when, if she looked at him for too long her heart would want to go over to him, but her body wouldn't move, or something would pull her away like her mother, Ino or Sasuke.

It was five years ago that their real relationship with each other started. They were placed in the same genin team. Team 7 along with Sasuke uchiha, under the leader ship of Kakashi hatake. Naruto was pleased about this, Sakura was not. Over time the three of them learned how to work together as a team. Each of them grew stronger in their own way.

Sakura started to see the real Naruto, who he really was. He on the first day they were put in their team realised why he liked her. He posed as Sasuke to see how she felt about him. He found out more than he expected. That she was just like him. They both wonted to be acknowledged. It was the second time he had met someone that was like him in some way. Both of those people were now on a team with him.

As the missions they were sent on got more dangerous they found themselves being pushed to their limits, but through all of this they all remained close as a team. It was the happiest time in their lives for all of them. Happiness never lasts long though, it is like the blooming of a flower. It will begin to slip away, as soon as it fully blossomed.

After a year as team 7 everything changed, Sasuke left. Sakura begged him to stay, not waiting any of this to be real. She couldn't get through to him. Naruto was the only person that could bring him back. He made her a promise of a life time, to bring him back for her. He put her happiness before his own. It was in doing that that opened Sakura's eyes to the fact that Naruto had always been the one that was there for her. He always understood her, and protected her. They were too young then, to naive to know how much this promise was going to affect them.

When Naruto returned to the village, without Sasuke, Sakura did the only thing she could do. The thing she had learned from Naruto, put on a fake smile, and shield the each other from pain. She also made a promise to herself then to get stronger, and help Naruto. They would do it together next time that became her mantra. She repeated it to herself so many times it almost lost real meaning for her.

Like Sasuke after team 7 fell apart Naruto and Sakura started to train under the two other legendary sannin. This training took Naruto away from the village, for two and a half years. Sakura wasn't there to say goodbye. She couldn't bring herself to go through another painful goodbye, she also knew that he would be back, this was not the end. Still she couldn't help herself from trying to catch a glimpse of him leaving from the main gate from the hokage's office window.

Half way through the five years that had passed since they became a team, they were miles apart. Each going through training from hell. They became the others reason to keep going, to get stronger. Naruto wanted to be strong enough to protect the village, and Sakura. To bring back Sasuke, keeping his promise of a lifetime to Sakura. Naruto was Sakura's inspiration; she wanted to be stronger so she could help him, not rely on him, and to protect him.

It was almost four years to the day that team 7 was first formed, when they were all reunited again. That was a day when everything changed for Naruto and Sakura. Naruto was forced to admit that Sasuke had left them on his own free will, this was the start of his realisation that Sasuke was not the person that he had believed he was. Sakura saw the person she believed she had loved so deeply try and kill Naruto, herself and the rest of the new team 7.

"I'm here too."

They were her words to him, after Sasuke left them again. She had to control her voice, so that Naruto wouldn't tell that she was crying too. In her mind it felt to her that she was yelling at him to acknowledge her. She wanted him to do anything to try and get her attention, like he used too. When he used to do that, she couldn't really see through his fake smile, couldn't see how much pain he was burring deep inside. He never wonted anyone to see that pain, especially Sakura, but she and anyone that got close to him, could see right through it.

Right then she wanted that Naruto back. She wanted to go back to those days. That Naruto was still there, deep down she knew that, she just saw the real Naruto now. Despite what had just happened, a part of her was comforted by how much closer she and Naruto were now.

When he returned to the village a few months earlier, she caught him by surprise. He wasn't blind he could see how much she had grown up over the two and a half years he had been away from the village, but to him she was still the same Sakura. He had always seen how strong she could be when no one else seemed to, even her. So she was the way he knew she would be, unchanged from how he saw her.

She had built him up in her mind. He became this strong, powerful, smart and handsome guy that was going to come back fix everything and prove everyone that ever doubted him wrong, and she was going to be by his side the whole time. Helping him, like she should have been doing from the start.

Seeing him again, she was sure she had been proven right, but a part of her felt sad, that the Naruto that she had known, grown to care about, trust and rely on wasn't there anymore. Then he opened his mouth, and she was relieved that the Naruto she knew was still there.

It was now five years to the day, when team 7 was formed. The two of them stood in the snow; neither of them felt the cold or took any notice of the five people that were watching them. Nothing was ever going to be the same after this. There was no going back.

They loved each other, and they knew it, but things were never that simple. Sakura loved him she knew that, but she didn't know if she was in love with him yet. She had been so disparate for him to believe her that she went too far. Saying that Sasuke meant nothing to her that was a lie they both knew that. Sasuke would never not mean anything to either of them.

All she wanted to do was stop causing him pain that was all she felt she had been doing. If she let him know how she felt, then he would give up on Sasuke. The two causes of his pain would be gone. It wasn't till she saw him, and started to speak that she realised how much she wanted him to hear what she was saying. She wanted to put all of that pain behind him, behind both of them and move on, together.

The words just seemed to topple out of her mouth. When she realised she was holding him in her arms again, she felt safer than she ever had. For the first time in a long time she believed that things could get better. She had seen Naruto's unique gift, his ability to change people in action time and time again. It was now that she realised that he had done the same thing to her, without her even knowing.

He had wanted to hear these words from her for so long, really he had wanted to hear I love you from anyone. That was still such an odd idea, that someone could love him. He found himself almost believing her, but he had to know for sure.

He challenged her, and she in an attempt to make her point clear went too far. That was when the idea that this could be total truth left him. There was truth in what she had said; he knew she would never lie to him out of malice. There was more to this, something she wasn't telling him.

Sakura's mind went blank; she didn't know what to say. She had wanted to keep it from him, but telling him might be the only way to make him believe her feelings. Which now that they were being denied, she felt an over whelming need to prove them to him.

Five years, since this all started. They all knew deep down that they were nearing the end of this story, this part of their lives. They had so much they wanted to do, say before then. There was only one thing that each of them knew for sure. That Sasuke was past the point of no return. Sakura, that wherever all of this lead, she was in it till the end with Naruto, by his side. Naruto, that he had come this far, he wasn't about to turn back now, especial now that the end was so close.

Five years of growth had lead them here, there was no going back now for any of them.

* * *

**I wrote this a while ago for a competition, but I realised that in the manga it is going to be Naruto's birthday the next day, then it would be his 17th. They were 12 when put in team 7. So this is kind of more relevant now. It kind of explains my view on the whole confession thing.**

**I know that there is a bit of Sasuke in this, but I just left that you can't really talk about narusaku without Sasuke being mentioned, in a little way. I hope you liked it, thank you for reading.**


End file.
